Javy Baez Era Somehow Finds a New Low in Detroit
The Detroit Tigers beat the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday night, 3-1. Javy Baez's struggles continued despite the fact that he hit a double in his one at-bat before leaving the game. Did he suffer a devastating injury? Get ejected for showing up an umpire? No, much worse. He committed multiple sins against the game of baseball and manager AJ Hinch told him to hit the showers.
Baez has multiple brain farts and showed little to no situational awareness as he hit a ball deep to left in the second inning. His first mistake was forgetting that the Blue Jays had redesigned their outfield in the offseason. Last year this ball would have sailed over a wall that was four feet and four inches shorter. So he absolutely would have been celebrating his first home run of the season by walking to first base. Instead, it hit the wall and he had to settle for a double.
That's where things get confusing. Baez tried to save face by throwing up two fingers to signal a double back to the dugout like nothing happened and that's what he meant to do all along. Or perhaps he was asking if there were two outs? That's definitely a possibility based on what happened next.
Akil Baddoo hit one to center that was caught, but Baez had lost track of the outs.
Javier Báez got a late start out of the box watching his drive to LF that hit off the top of the wall for a double. Then he apparently forgot how many outs there were on Akil Baddoo's fly out to CF, resulting in an inning-ending 8-4 double play. The baserunning mishaps continue. pic.twitter.com/JJCDKWMiGk
— Jason Beck (@beckjason) April 13, 2023
That's two strikes right there which was more than enough for Hinch, who immediately pulled him aside and benched him. After the game Baez said he was on-board with the decision and added that the way he's playing, it's going to get worse.
Javier Báez: "My mind is everywhere right now. I'm just trying to focus on my hitting and my timing. The only reason I lost the count of the outs, it was because I was hitting sixth. I thought I was the third batter in that inning. That's the only reason." #Tigers
— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) April 14, 2023
Javier Báez on A.J. Hinch: "We got to show respect to the game. He made the decision, and I respect it. He's the manager, and we got to respect what he does."
— Evan Petzold (@EvanPetzold) April 14, 2023
Báez later added: "We're obviously on the same page about the decision." #Tigers
The Tigers are currently tied with the Oakland Athletics for the fewest wins in baseball. Baez has the worst numbers of anyone on the team who plays regularly. And he has the second-worse OPS in all of baseball. It's actually hard to imagine it getting any worse. Unless you're the team paying him.